(1) Technical Field
The subject invention is directed toward a support frame for radiation detection equipment employed to aid in consistent detection of radioactivity of material passed through the frame.
(2) Description of The Prior Art
As the world has become more environmentally conscious, manufacturers, hospitals, clinics and other waste producers must now monitor the radioactivity of their waste. Landfill and incinerator operators which receive waste are sometimes not licensed to handle radioactive materials. Should they detect any radioactivity in waste, these operators may reject the waste and the originator may be required to retrieve, sort and reclaim the radioactive materials in the waste. In addition, fines may be imposed by the relevant regulatory agencies. Hospitals and medical waste producers have been particularly vulnerable to these situations.
Although such waste producers may have procedures in place for handling regulated radioactive medical waste, there have been many instances where radioactive materials have by-passed these procedures and have gotten into the normal waste stream. As such, many waste producers have turned to monitoring the radioactivity of their own wastes. Unfortunately, this also requires additional personnel to monitor the waste, typically using hand held survey meters. Waste producers have a difficult time insuring consistency in the procedures for radioactivity inspections necessitating even additional personnel having oversight responsibilities with no guarantee of greater monitoring consistency. The additional labor costs necessary to monitor radioactive wastes in this way makes such costly procedures very unattractive.
The subject invention overcomes these problems in a mobile support frame for radiation detector equipment which requires no active oversight or monitoring of employees and which insures consistency in the procedures for radioactivity inspection in an efficient, cost effective manner.